This is a question two presidential candidates who aren’t Joe Biden should be asking themselves. They could use this tune as a soundtrack.
Black Francis said the song was inspired by a scuba dive in the Caribbean, but movies have been using it for years to signal a character’s inability to recognize reality. It was a highlight of the first Pixies album, “Surfer Rosa,” produced by the late, legendary Steve Albini and released in 1988. It reached a broader audience when David Fincher used it over the closing credits of 1999’s “Fight Club,” and it’s been much covered since.
Most of the covers have been by bands on the harder end of the rock spectrum, but the song is so well-established that even Kelly Clarkson sings it.